T For Vendetta
by DearLadyDisdain
Summary: Tenten has always come in second her whole life - always brushed aside & dismissed. So why should there be an exception when Sakura becomes Tsundae's apprentice? Well, Tenten is looking to change that... RE-TITLED & GOING THROUGH EDITS.
1. Prologue

I know, new story, but this is kind of a teaser and I will continue work on The Ex-Girlfriends.

It's quite obvious that I don't own Naruto.

* * *

I've never had a last name, I've never had parents, and I've never had a boyfriend, but the one thing I always prided myself on was my perfect aim. No matter what I threw, fired, or punched, I always hit my mark. One hundred percent accuracy was my talent that got me placed on Team Gai. Lee wasn't remarkable in the beginning, but I was mediocre in comparison to the Neji Hyuga. He was a genius, a prodigy fighter, and born into a terrible circumstance. I've had a small crush on him from the day we met. Still, we have trained together for a year and he acknowledges me. My whole team does, and they are the only ones that ever have. I've tried to change the order of things, but it seems that I will always get second place in a team. 

My confidence in my weapons faltered when Temari kicked my ass in the preliminaries. I felt so dejected and beat. She killed me without breaking a sweat. Neji, Lee, and Gai told me that she was the worst possible opponent for me to have; wind versus objects of destruction that depended on no air disturbance. They convinced me that I was good and that everyone needed training. I believed them and moved on.

There was a dream that I had though. I had always dreamed of becoming a great kunoichi like Tsunade. She was beautiful and the best of the best, and I wanted to prove to everyone that women can make better ninja than men. So that's why I trained like crazy without sacrificing my beauty. I hung a poster of her on my apartment wall to remind myself why I would train. I would also look up facts about her and write them on the poster. Like the fact that she has incredible strength; even stronger than master Gai!

Now you can see why I was terribly excited when I found out that she would be our fifth Hokage. I remember the first time I saw her was when she was buying alcohol, and I couldn't take my eyes off her. She had a dangerous quality to her that I wanted to have. She was everything I wanted to be. I wanted her to take me from my team where I was nobody, to be her apprentice where I would be somebody. I didn't want to seem demanding though. So I displayed my abilities to her fully. Whenever we got a mission from her, I was determined to be the star and the one that came through for the team. That rarely happened, but she still gave me a small smile whenever we completed a mission as if to say, "You may not be the best, but you will be." This only made me want to train harder, to prove that I was worthy of her verbally complimenting me. While I was training my butt off, someone got in the way of my plans.

Sakura never had any extraordinary talent for a shinobi. She was loud, obsessed over her teammate Saskue, possessed little power, and was never particularly pretty. But something changed when Saskue left though. She went right up to Tsunade and demanded to be her apprentice. When Hinata told me, I laughed and said, "Surely Tsunade refused her?" To my surprise, she didn't. From that day on, Sakura progressed at a supernatural rate. She was a good medic and was getting the hang of Tsunade's strength. This made me want to outshine her and prove to Tsunade that she had made a mistake in picking apprentices.

I was left out of a giant mission that the rookie twelve (I should say eleven) went on, and Hinata spoke of how everyone was counting on Sakura to survive. Even Neji was complimenting Sakura's abilities. She also told me that Tsunade took on Ino of all people as well. Ino was someone whom I really could not stand. I gave her a concussion once for bothering Neji during our training session (In my defense, her voice was breaking my concentration and I missed one of my targets). That left me as the only kunoichi in the rookie group not to receive any kind of special training or to possess any bloodline trait. I was suddenly in the back of the group and falling behind.

I had to go deliver a message from Gai-sensei to Tsunade one day. I opened her study door only to find her teaching Sakura some advanced medical jutsu. What really bugged me was the way Tsunade was looking at Sakura. She looked at her as a parent looks at their child when they're proud of them. Sakura walked up to me and said, "It's Tenten, right? I've never really seen you around before." I wanted to slap her and use her as a pincushion for my weapons, but I smiled and said, "Yeah, I'm Tenten. I'm always busy, so maybe that's why." She smiled and went to get some water while I gave the message to Tsunade. What really pulled at me was the fact that Sakura had this average, boyish figure whereas I was built with an hourglass frame and was rather pretty (not to be vain, but I was). I didn't' understand why Tsunade took Sakura under her wing when Tsunade herself was of legendary beauty.

After that, I went to train with Neji. He deflected all of my weapons as usual and came out without a scratch. I was thoroughly beaten up as my weapons proved useless against him. When I called for a break, he just rolled his eyes at me and I heard him mumble, "Why do I bother?" I told him I had to leave, and I don't think he cared. He never cares about anything. He left and I picked up my weapons in silence.

That day, I went home and tore down the poster of Tsunade. I took two pieces of paper and I drew Sakura on one and Neji on the other and wrote a phrase on each of them as well. I threw two kunai at them and they were stuck to the wall. From that day on, I forgot about my crush on Neji, and I forgot about becoming like Tsunade. I took another piece of paper and wrote, "Prove everyone wrong and surpass them." I threw a shuriken at that one and it stuck above the drawings. I had a new goal: Defeat Sakura and prove to everyone that I was not worthless.


	2. Training Pains

I really didn't expect such a response for the prologue, but thank you all. As anticipated, here's the first chapter.

I obviously don't own Naruto.

* * *

I woke up at five the next morning. I always got up at five-thirty, but I had some serious thinking to do about how I was going to beat Sakura. The idea sounded nice at the time, but now that I'm actually trying to do it, it seems harder and harder. The only medic that I've ever fought really sucked, but this is different. She's learning from the best, so it would be safe to assume that she is learning all there is to know.

I pulled out a piece of lined paper and grabbed a pen that was sitting on my desk. I wrote all my current knowledge of what most medics are capable of, which comprised of: reading an opponents movements and learning how to counter them, basic medical jutsu, super strength (In Sakura's case), and healing themselves. As far as I can tell, in order for me to beat her, I would have to develop serious chakra control, super strength, crazy speed, a random pattern of attack, become ambidextrous, and an ultimate attack that would take her out before she could heal herself. This wasn't going to be simple at all. An attack would be a long-term project that would start as soon as possible. The next thing that I would need to do would be to develop chakra control in my whole body.

I groaned and put on my regular training clothes. I left my large arsenal of weapons on the floor of my main room and grabbed bandages. For what I was going to do, I would need them.

I walked to a training ground by a cliff, enjoying the morning mist that hung over Konoha in the early morning. I could tell that people were waking as more and more lights turned on. I made it to training ground forty-five. This was the one training ground that most shinobi avoided at all costs. I thought it was perfect.

Gai-sensei had once described to me how Tsunade's strength worked. You had to build up intense amounts of chakra in your fist and release it at exactly the right nanosecond that it came in contact with the object you wanted to destroy. It is extremely tricky and timing is everything. Well, there's a first time for everything.

I sat on the ground and began to wrap bandages on my hands. Both Neji and Sakura have close-range fighting styles with good defense and offense in one. The only thing with Neji is that his Rotation can't be broken- wait, I just remembered. Naruto broke it in the third stage of the exams. So it can be done! I just need enough chakra.

I finished wrapping my hands and walked over to the nearest rock. Here goes nothing. I built up the chakra in my hand to a maximum and released it the second it made contact with the rock.

"OOOOWWWWW!"

I clutched my hand in agony. I had released the chakra, but it just made a small crater where I hit the rock and then a large crack across it. What if I released it a different way?

This time I'll try to release it in a wide pattern. I built up my strength and hit the rock again.

The same reaction as before, only with more swearing. This time, I made lots of small cracks. This was going to be much harder than I thought.

It continued like this for almost two hours. Towards the end, the pain had subsided, but that may be due to the fact that my knuckles were shredded. Blood had long since soaked through the bandages and left red smears on the rock itself. I stepped back and saw that the rock was still the same, give or take a few pebble-sized pieces that fell off. Sighing, I unwrapped the bandages and put on clean ones. I realized that I was going to be late for training.

I sprinted down the hill and to our grounds to find that only Lee was kicking targets in half. He looked up and saw me. "Tenten!"

"Hi Lee. Where's Neji and Gai-sensei?"

"Gai-sensei is on a mission and Neji has a special event at his home."

I was really hoping to catch Gai to have him help me learn strength training. Wait...

"Lee, could you help me with something?"

Lee's face lit up and the target he was kicking fell over.

"You want me to help you? Of course! What do you need help with?"

"Speed training. I'm not very fast and I was wondering if you had any leg weights that I could train with?" I almost hoped that he didn't have any.

"Yosh! I have many! For starters like you, I would do twenty pounds for each leg."

My jaw dropped. Forty extra pounds? Sure, my weapons weigh a lot, but I don't strap them all to my legs and then go run with them. Come on Tenten, this is to prove that I am not weak. If I back out of a little extra weight, then I am worthless in my own eyes. This is just another obstacle to overcome.

Before I could say anything else, Lee took off his weights and sped away. I walked over to where his weights were. They were one hundred fifty pounds each. I gulped and before I knew it, Lee was back and holding a pair of leg weights. He also had what looked like arm weights.

"I brought arm weights for you too. You shall put on the weights and we will run ten laps around- Tenten, what happened to your hands?"

I had held out my hands to grab the weights and he saw my bandages. Blood had seeped to the surface and left a crimson stain on them. I quickly took the weights and put the leg weights on. "Oh, it's only some extra training. What were we going to run ten laps around?"

Lee looked at my hands once more before saying, "Konoha of course! It will provide a good base for you to start training!"

I sighed, strapped my weights on, and was hardly able to walk. These would definitely take some getting used to. Lee had his weights back on and was beckoning me to follow. I did, groaning all the way.

* * *

We were done three hours later, due to the fact that I was jogging the whole way with these weights attached to my legs. Lee was very nice about it afterwards though. He encouraged me the whole way through and made sure that I wasn't too far behind. When we finished, we sat back down at the training ground and he tossed me his water bottle. "Tenten, are you sure that your hands are ok? If they're not, you could get Sakura to heal them."

The name Sakura made me twitch. I would not get help from my worst enemy.

"Lee, they're fine. I just need to improve my technique."

Lee looked skeptical, but he didn't bring up the subject of my hands again. "Wear the weights all day to get used to them. When you're done with them, I'll upgrade you to thirty pounds."

I smiled. Lee is like an older and a little brother in one package. He's the one to cheer me up when Neji calls me useless and he'll always make you laugh. I picked up my tired and heavy legs and stood myself up. "Bye Lee, and thank you."

I left the training ground to go to the city and get some lunch. I know Ichiraku's Ramen isn't healthy, but I am sore and tired and I will eat what I want. I limped over to the ramen bar and sat myself down. I made sure that I had enough money to order something, and then the guy took my order. While they were making the ramen, I threw my legs on top of the stool that was next to me. Seriously, I will have man legs by the time I reach fifty on each.

The ramen guy handed me my bowl and I began to eat. I noticed Asuma sitting at the end of the bar and smoking a cigarette. All I knew about him was that he was Ino's sensei and he and Kurenai were dating. I turned back to my ramen and attempted to pick up the chopsticks and use them, but my hands were sore and it hurt to move my fingers. I settled on picking the bowl up and downing it that way. I could see Asuma watching me sympathetically out of the corner of my eye. I didn't want any sympathy. I wanted to be a good kunoichi, but I wasn't. The most I can do is be a third body and throw accurately, which isn't always great for missions.

Getting annoyed at the sympathetic looks, I finished my bowl and paid. It was only six, so I decided to go back to the rock and try to make some kind of progress. The whole way there, I thought of ways to release my chakra that would effectively turn the rock into rubble. When I reached the cliff, the sun was beginning to set. I had about an hour, which was all I could take. The whole hour, I tried different ways of releasing my chakra into the rock. All were ineffective in every way. The sun had set now, and this is my last punch. What the heck, I'll just build up as much as possible, push it into the rock, and do nothing beyond that.

So I did, and it worked. Sort-of. There was no screaming pain in my hand, only a dull soreness that came from making contact with the rock, but the rock that went about two feet deep was lying in dust and pebbles. I'm tired, but I'm happy. I face Konoha and say to myself, "Told you so." I then limp back to my apartment where I throw off the weights and I feel much better. I redressed my bandages and climbed into bed, hoping that sleep will heal me a little for group training tomorrow.

* * *

I woke again at five the next morning. No, I still hurt. My knuckles sting while my fingers fight off paralysis, my ankles and knees creak and groan at the slightest movement, and my legs in general feel like dead weights. I try to concentrate chakra in my legs to try to get them to move, but I have trouble even doing that. I flashback to Lee telling me to get Sakura to heal me, and I immediately forget all thoughts of pain. I will not be the injured one in that situation. I managed to get out of bed and limp over to the list of things that I made to do. I made sure that I had, "Learn medical jutsu." I didn't, so I added it. It would come in handy in many cases. I grudgingly pull on my clothes, tie my hair up, put on my leg weights, and grab my weapons. I wouldn't use them in strength training, but I have group training at nine and I don't feel like doubling back later to get my weapons.

I leave my apartment and get to the rock that I smashed. Remembering what I did the whole time, I concentrate all my chakra and as my hand makes contact with the rock. My hand doesn't hurt nearly as much as it did yesterday, but the wounds already reopened on my knuckles. The same reaction happened; it only destroyed the rock that went two feet deeper. If I gather more, then I'll destroy more. So I did, and it worked to a certain extent. It went about a foot deeper into the rock. I did it repeatedly, switching hands and beating the rock until I had destroyed the whole rock formation itself.

The sun had fully risen over the city, and I realized that I would be late for training. On the way to our training ground, I rewrapped my bandages so that Lee didn't ask questions. To my annoyance, the blood had managed to soak through the new ones by the time I got to the grounds. The rest of the team was there already, waiting for me. I could tell Neji was looking at me oddly because he was eyeing my bandages and my weights, but I ignored him. I stopped in front of Lee to catch my breath and said, "Sorry I'm late."

Gai-sensei just smiled and said it was alright. He and Lee went off to spar and that left Neji and I. I asked to stretch before we fought and he merely grunted. While stretching, I debated whether or not to use my newfound strength. I decided to use it smartly, as I didn't know just how far I could go with my strength, and I wanted to know its full effects before revealing the intensity of my strength to Neji. I did however come up with a different strategy than normal. I stood up and announced that I was ready. He got into his normal stance and activated his Byakugan while I readied my weapons.

I began by throwing three shuriken at him that he easily deflected. While he was deflecting them, I charged with a kunai in hand. He came at me with his gentle fist while I used the replacement jutsu to avoid attack. Now I was behind him, still charging. He spun around and threw two shuriken at me, but I used the replacement jutsu again. Now I was above him and flying at him. This time he took two kunai and threw them at me and spun around in preparation for where I was, but I was in the same place he left me; flying at him with two kunai in my stomach. I managed to cut his cheek and punch him with my new strength. He went spinning into a tree. He steadied himself again and looked at me in surprise. It took all my training as a shinobi to not smile and jump for joy that I landed a hit. For the first time in my life, I landed a hit on THE Neji Huyga.

Neji stood up and readied himself with a serious look. We began again, only this time I could feel how serious he was. I kept dodging his gentle fist attacks while pelting weapons at him that he deflected. Then I aimed a blizzard of weapons in succession that he began to use his rotation on. Before he could get into it fully, I slide tackled him from below. He went down, but he fell on me instead of the ground. I laid there for a few awkward seconds before he picked himself of me. I picked myself off the ground and my head spun. Neji must have seen this because he called a break and we walked over to where Lee and Gai were sparring. I drank deeply from the water bottle and passed it on to Neji who refused. Gai and Lee took a break as well and came over to us.

Gai looked at Neji and said, "Neji, did you cut your cheek on a tree branch?"

I glared at Gai with all the severity that I could muster.

Neji spoke, "No sensei, Tenten cut me during our fight."

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or to beat Lee and Gai for their expressions. Lee was smiling wide and looked happy, but Gai-sensei looked shocked. He then erupted into something about, "Tenten, our youthful flower, has blossomed!" Honestly, he said that to me when we made it out of the Forrest of Death in the chunin exams.

Gai looked ecstatic the rest of training. Neji and I went back to spar, but I used my same old techniques and I think he may have been expecting me to jump out of my Rising Twin Dragons at any moment and try to pummel him. To be honest, I was too damn tired. The first attack took it out of me combined with training earlier that morning. When Gai-sensei called an end to training, Neji actually stayed to help me pick up my weapons. As I pulled out a kunai that was lodged tightly in a tree, he spoke to me without insulting me. "Nice job today. You actually had some good moves."

Or maybe he would still insult me.

"Thanks. It was a spur-of-the moment thing."

He handed me a katana, and walked away. Lee hadn't left yet, so I walked over to him. "Could you run laps with me?"

His eyes lit up and he reminded me of an overenthusiastic puppy. "Of course! It shall be a pleasure to run laps!"

We ended up running twenty laps around the city. I could actually run to a certain extent with these weights on my legs, but Lee said that I drastically improved. We made it back to the training ground and shared a water bottle. "Tenten, what happened to your hands?"

I was a little annoyed at the question, but Lee had helped me these past two days, so I would answer him truthfully. "I've been developing a new technique and it takes its wear on my hands."

"May I?" he asked. I knew what he wanted, so I held out my hands. He unwrapped the bandages and I couldn't help but feel slightly ashamed that my knuckles would look very grotesque. Lee gasped and I knew I was right; the first three layers of skin were worn away and they stung when they hit open air. They leaked blood at a constant rate, and it didn't look like they would stop any time soon. "Tenten, what are you doing?"

"I'm working on a technique! In a week or two, they will callous over. It will be fine, don't worry!"

Lee still looked sick. "At least see Sakura-chan. She will heal-"

"The last thing I need is Sakura," I said. I didn't want to be mean about it, but it was true. The last person that I needed to see was Sakura.

Before Lee could reply however, Gai was dragging Kakashi behind him shouting something like, "My eternal rival, I shall defeat you this time!" Kakashi looked like he would rather be anywhere else. Lee had always been supportive of Gai's rivalry, but lately Gai had been going over the top. Lee pulled him away to spar. Kakashi wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead then said, "What happened to your hands?"

I was really beginning to get annoyed at that question. Am I that hard to socialize with that they need to resort to asking me about my bodily injuries? "Strength training. It's a pain in the ass."

"You know," he said. "When Sakura was strength training, she had wounds very similar to yours."

I gulped. "Really?"

"Yeah. She saved her knuckles from being permanently damaged by wearing special gloves. Would you like some?" He took out a pair of black, fingerless gloves from his vest pocket and handed them to me. I accepted them and put them on over my bandages. He and I understood what I was doing, and I didn't say a word. He then took out what looked like a deck of playing cards and pulled one off the top. "This card will tell you what kind of chakra you have. It will be earth, wind, fire, water, or lightning. Just concentrate your chakra into the card."

I took the card and looked up at him. "Why are you helping me instead of Sakura?"

"Because she has a sensei that is better suited to her style of fighting. You have Gai, and, well... he's not exactly your ultimate match."

I held the card up and concentrated some chakra into it. It broke into several pieces. "What does that mean?"

"It means you have an affinity for earth based chakra moves. I don't know much about it, but Anko has earth-based chakra. You should ask her about some things." With that, he left in a hurry because Gai was eager to come back. I held the crumpled bits of paper in my hand, and looked down at the ground. I opened my palm, and the pieces fluttered down to the ground and rested there, like flowers that hadn't bloomed.

* * *

Once again, thanks for the wonderful reviews and all the hits. As you can tell, I don't really like Sakura. 


	3. The Days Go By

Thanks again for the response to this story. However, fear not readers of The Ex-Girlfriends Band, for I am working on chapter 4 as well as updating this. I'm listening to "Walk like an Egyptian," and it's crazy addictive. I guess I'll have to wait for the 80's dance party.

It's a given that I don't own any piece of the Naruto pie.

* * *

After my conversation with Kakashi, I realized that I could have an ally in this whole goal of mine. Anko seemed cool and accepting enough to help me out, but dangerous at the same time. The only thing I'm worried about is her temper. Some rookie called her a bitch once and she flipped out and almost killed them. Another difficulty is finding her, because Kakashi didn't tell me if she was on a mission or if she was in the hospital for some reason. I'll start out at the Hokage's office.

As I made my way there, I wondered what I would learn with my new chakra element. I've only read about nature manipulation, and it seems incredibly powerful. It multiplies a jutsu's strength almost ten fold. With some more training combined with nature manipulation, my strength could be greater than Sakura's or Tsunade's. I smiled at that thought. The chunin exams were in six months, and I needed to prepare for them. I told myself that I would pass, and I will.

I arrived outside the Hokage building. I climbed the stairs only to meet a frazzled looking Shizune carrying papers down the stairs. "Oh, Hello Tenten!" Shizune was always so nice.

"Hi! Could you tell me where Anko is?"

"She should be in Lady Tsunade's office reporting on her mission status."

I waved a thank you and set off for the Hokage's office. I almost ran into Anko as she walked out. "Tenten! What brings you here?"

Now I got nervous, but I told myself to hold strong. "I found out that I have an affinity for Earth type chakra, and Kakashi told me that you did too. I was hoping that you could help me in my training?"

Anko looked at me oddly for a while and then said, "Sure, why not? I've got free time the rest of the day, so why don't we start now?"

I was shocked. I expected her to laugh and call it a pipe dream, but she didn't. "Ok... I can show you where I want to go and what I've got done so far."

She shrugged and followed me out of the building to training ground forty-five. I explained that I had only been training for two days, but I was already making progress with strength training. I stopped when we got to the rock I destroyed that morning (It was now a pile of pebbles) and showed her. "This is what I did this morning."

Anko whistled loudly. "You did this in one punch?"

"No, it took around fifteen punches to get there. My punches only penetrate three feet if I get lots of chakra."

Anko just nodded and looked at the damage. "It's still pretty good for two days. It took Tsunade almost five months to get her strength, so I'm surprised that you were able to get this far." She turned to face me and looked me straight in the eye. "You're not ready for nature manipulation yet. You've got to get more chakra and more regular muscle strength." She turned to leave and I shouted, "Then teach me!"

She turned back around with a look in her eye. I was genuinely scared for my life but I said, "Train me to handle the strength, and then teach me nature manipulation. I don't care what you throw at me, but I will do it."

She smiled a little and said, "You've got some nerve kid. I like nerve, so I'll be your sensei and train you to handle the strength. I will warn you though; I won't go easy in any way."

I stood tall and firm. "What ever it takes to beat Sakura, I'll deal with it."

"You want to beat Sakura? Why?"

Crap. I might as well tell her if she's going to be my sensei.

"Anko-sensei, for a long time, I wanted to be just like Tsunade, so when she came to be the Hokage, I wanted to be her apprentice. I trained to show her my skills, but Sakura got to her first. I want to beat her to show Tsunade that I should be her apprentice."

Anko frowned and sat down on the ground. She motioned for me to do the same. "Are you sure that Sakura stole her from you? You have teammates that can stand each other, but her teammates were constant rivals and they are both gone from Konoha now. She trains to bring back Saskue, and Tsunade sees that and wants to help her. Do you have a cause like that worth training for?"

Now I felt bad about silently declaring war on Sakura. I realized now that it didn't matter who was prettier or who wanted which sensei more. She wanted to bring back her friend from the darkness, and I wanted to bring myself into the spotlight.

"I've realized that beating Sakura won't make anything better. My real cause is that my teammates and Gai-sensei all think I'm worthless. I'm the token woman on my team that they all need to protect, and I don't want to be that anymore. I want to be the one protecting them and leaving them in the dust. When Neji and I spar, I want to win on a regular basis and not just put a scratch on him, but pummel him. I want to be necessary to a team, and I want people to depend on me. I don't want to be worthless anymore."

Anko was silent for a long time, and then she smiled and said, "That was what I wanted to hear. I assume that your team is taking the chunin exams this year?" I nodded. "I'll train you to be the best genin and you will kick some ass. We'll use Sakura as a model for you to counter, as she will be pretty good by that time as well. Your training begins now."

So for six months, we trained. She would strength train me in the early morning, I had group training in the late morning and depending on the day, she and I would train the rest of the day. She would often have patrol duty during the day or a mission for several days. To help, she took the patrol slot when I would be training with my team, and we would be together the rest of the day. She always took me out to dinner and I developed a fondness for dango. When I had missions, she would spend that time devising plans of attack for me or she would come up with "lesson plans" for our next training session. She was a brutal trainer, but it paid off. I now had enough muscle strength to destroy a wall without chakra, and I was deadly with chakra. My taijutsu was much better thanks to Lee's extra training and by the end of the six months; he had upgraded me to sixty pounds on each leg. I was fast even with the weights on. Gai, Neji, and Lee knew that I was training with Anko, but I didn't show my newfound abilities to my teammates during training though, because I want them to be surprised when they see how much I've improved. My personality had changed in those six months as well. I stopped caring about what I looked like (Except I still put my hair up in twin buns) and I stopped liking Neji as more than a teammate or a friend. What's funny is when you stop caring about your appearance, more guys hit on you. For example, Anko took me out to eat one night, and Kiba was there with Shikamaru and Chouji. I must have looked different from normal, because Kiba came up to me and started flirting with me. Anko was laughing hysterically while Kiba attempted to get me to go on a date with him. I told him who I was, and he went back to his seat and enjoyed much teasing from Chouji the rest of the night. Anko still doesn't let me live it down. Anko became my best friend and sister that whole time. She was proud of me too, and I don't know how I ever functioned without her.

The first day of the week before I was scheduled to take the chunin exam, I show up for afternoon training. She is standing there without any visible means of torture, so I'm a little suspicious. "Tenten, I've wanted to say this for six months, but you look ridiculous with the weights on your legs combined with the pants. Because of this, you're getting a wardrobe update." And without further warning, she pulled me all the way back to her apartment. When we were there, she handed me a black wraparound shirt with kimono sleeves, a mesh one-piece suit, and a skirt like the one she was wearing. "Try it on!" she exclaimed.

I went to her bathroom to try them on, and I must admit that I looked good. I put my kunai pouch on my right leg and fixed my scroll pouch to the skirt, and walked out to where Anko was applauding. "You look dressed to win! I picked the shirt for you because of the sleeves and their ability to hide these!" With that she handed me a rather elaborate looking device that had six cylinders sitting on top of what looked like forearm armor, and they all had a loop at the end of them. "What the heck is that?" I asked.

"It shoots poisoned needles. It straps to your arm like this," she pulled up my sleeve and strapped the device around my forearm. "So all you have to do is shake back your sleeve, pull the loops that are attached to stings, and fire away! The poison is fast acting, so it won't be too hard to destroy an opponent. I got the idea from Shizune. The mesh is easy to move in, and I gave you the skirt for obvious reasons. You're getting this stuff now so that you can work better with it in the exams. Oops! I almost forgot," she pulled out a pair of boots that covered where my leg weights would be. "So no one sees your secret weapon of speed."

I was speechless, so I stood there grinning like a maniac for several minutes before I hugged Anko and said, "Thank you. For everything." She hugged me back, then I left her apartment to go back to my own, taking my clothes with me and enjoying the fact that I was going to kick serious ass in the exams.

* * *

The week seemed to fly by. The whole team was shocked when I showed up to practice in the new outfit (Lee and Gai were at least, Neji just arched an eyebrow), and I pummeled Lee in taijutsu training. Neji and I had been training together less and less, and he was beginning to spend more time with Gai. I didn't really care though, as I was too busy getting used to my new wardrobe, having two kunai pouches, and preparing for the exams in general.

The day of the exams, I was freaking out a little. There were tons of teams from different villages, but I saw Sakura standing by Ino and Chouji, and the Sand siblings were there again. Temari gave me a nod that I returned, Sakura was talking to Ino, and both looked nervous. I walked over to them. "Are you guys excited about the exams?" I asked.

Sakura turned toward me and said, "I'm feeling a combination of nervous and-wait, when did you get that outfit?"

"Anko-sensei gave it to me."

Ino spoke this time. "Isn't she the loud proctor for the exams?"

"Yeah, she's kinda loud, but she's really nice, and she's only doing the second stage, so I have no idea what's going on the rest of the time."

Before either could reply, the loud booming voice of Ibiki Morino drowned everyone out and they all turned to listen. "Will all the teams please follow me into the room to begin the chunin exam."

There was the shuffling of feet as genin walked into the room and sat with their teammates. I sat between Neji and Lee, both looking a little sick, and Ibiki spoke again. He gave us the same speech as last year about the point system, cheating, and so forth while I got ready to cheat. The test began and I sent out my chakra along the floor. Anko told me that you could pick up an enemy's movements around you by sending out chakra along the floor and detecting the vibrations that movement would make. I did just that, and I copied Sakura. I then looked at the questions. The answers were right, so all I had to do was pretend as if I had no idea what I was doing. It worked, about ten teams were thrown out for cheating, and Ibiki said that those of us that didn't cheat or get caught were passed on to the next stage.

I walked out with Neji and Lee to gate number one for the Forrest of Death stage. Anko was there, she gave me thumbs up, and I smiled in return. "Alright maggots!" she yelled when all the teams were outside. "Your teams will line up to recive a heaven scroll or an earth scroll. You have five days to collect one of each and reach the tower that is directly in the middle of the forest. When you get your scroll, you will also recive your gate number. Go!"

We lined up to get a scroll. Due to the large curtain hanging in front of the stand, I couldn't tell who got which scroll. We were at the front of the line though, so when we received our heaven scroll, Neji hid it in his weapons pouch. We left, and he turned on his Byakugan. I knew that he was counting which teams had which scrolls. "You guys know the drill," he whispered. "When we have both scrolls, destroy any others that we come across." Lee and I nodded and took our place at gate twelve. Anko was there, waiting for us. "Good luck kids, you're gonna need it."

I laughed. "Anko-sensei, luck is for those with no skill, so we don't need any luck."

Anko laughed, and I could tell that Neji was scanning the area. We were several gates down in the last exam, so he was unfamiliar with the area. We had a basic strategy as well. Rest up during the day and hunt weak teams by night. We also wanted to get to the tower early, as there would be fewer teams there that would pick off stragglers. Anko looked at her watch, counted, and opened the gate. We were off; the second stage had begun.

* * *

Thanks again to my wonderful readers and reviewers. I'll hopefully update soon, but I have a three-day speech tournament, so I don't know how crazy I'll go without internet. We'll have to wait and find out! 


	4. Real Shinobi Are Kunoichi

Thanks for all the support for this fic and my other one, the Ex-Girlfriends

Thanks for all the support for this fic and my other one, the Ex-Girlfriends. I decided to update this because the last time I checked, it's been way over a month.

* * *

We sped off into the forest, Neji fully alert and Lee staying silent for once. The trees seemed to fly by and I nervously fingered the needle shooter on my arm, ready for an attack. I felt footsteps beneath us and said quietly to Neji, "What's under us?"

He waited a second and said, "It's probably just a rabbit. Nothing to worry about."

"Are you sure?" I said, still cautious. He was silent for a long while and then looked like he was concentrating. After a minute, he said in a very low voice, "Five, seven, and six o' clock." Before most people can blink, I had shot three senbon at the locations Neji told me. Sure enough, I heard two "omphs" and one "BITCH!" Neji and Lee stopped and headed to a clearing below us.

I had hit a team from the Mist. There were two guys that had my senbon lodged into their shoulders, disabling arm movements. The girl had it in her leg, and she was not happy. She was wearing a tight black one-piece suit with her Mist headband tied around her thigh. Her hair was black and she was screaming, "You bitch! Nobody hits Matanuki and gets away with it!"

I really wanted to laugh in her face. Her eyeliner looked like she had applied it in the dark and her hair was obviously thoroughly conditioned. I wanted to vomit.

She pulled out a kunai and charged at me. Well, more like limped. It was a poor move and it obviously had no strategy behind it. I simply sidestepped her, flipped her, and, using a technique Anko taught me, pushed chakra into my thumb and pressed hard into her neck. There was a pressure point there, and it effectively immobilized her nervous system. She laid there in a defeated sort of way, and one of the girl's teammates pulled out a heaven scroll while the other one collected the girl's body. The one with the heaven scroll rolled it across the ground to Neji and said, "Honor system." They flew off while Neji started to burn the scroll they just gave us. Lee looked flabbergasted, but Neji said, "We already have a heaven scroll. The less there are, that's one less team that could make us have preliminaries."

We continued on our way and decided to set up for an hour. We could get a chance to rest, and then prey on the other teams while they rested. We began to set up our genjutsu and Lee said, "Tenten, where did you learn how to do that thing with your thumb?"

I shrugged. "I learned it from Anko. That girl was really weak because I didn't have to use a lot of chakra in that blow."

"Anko is having a big effect on you," continued Lee. "You have a different outfit, you act different, and you even look different."

"Oh please Lee," I said, "I don't look that different, do I?"

Lee nodded while Neji looked me up and down, as if for the first time. Lee clapped his hands together and said, "Our beautiful flower looks very youthful and feminine now."

I blushed. It's not because I like him (jeez, that would be weird). I blushed because I got a compliment. Do you know how often I get compliments?

Not very often. I hang around guys mostly, so I only rarely get complimented on my perfect aim or the loudness of my burps.

Neji finished the genjutsu and we ended up at the site for an hour and a half. We each slept an hour total and rotated who got to guard. I had the last guard shift, so I was rather rested after sleeping for a while. When the sun had fully set, I woke Lee and Neji. Neji took down the genjutsu and I threw a kunai on the ground so it was lodged in. Neji told us to meet back in two hours to report back with what we had. I took off parallel to the tower and looked out for teams that would be settling. Along the way, I saw remains of fights, bad booby traps, and Hinata's team, but nobody to prey on. It was generally, and silently, agreed upon by all shinobi of the same village that you don't steal the each other's scrolls. The two-hour deadline was approaching when I saw a team that looked pretty beat up. Three guys from the Waterfall village all had nasty looking injures and they must have been first years, because they were talking about opening their scroll. I sat and watched, waiting on pins and needles to see if it was an earth scroll.

It was.

They were still arguing as I decided on using one of my new weapons that Anko helped me pick out. It was originally designed for trapping animals, but it would be appropriate in this case. They were nets that were infused with chakra and they locked with my chakra signature only. I pulled out a large one and estimated the distance and force at which I needed to throw it. The newbies had reached a fever pitch in their argument, and I struck.

Poor newbies never new what hit them. I had them wrapped up like mummies. One tried to use the escape jutsu, but I have chakra infused netting for a reason. I locked the net with my chakra and walked up to the one who had the earth scroll. He was glaring at me and cussing me out but I picked the scroll out of his hands and said, "Rule number one: Never let your guard down." Feeling pretty badass, I flew away, tucking the scroll down my shirt and heading back to our camp.

Neji and Lee were there already, looking empty handed. "What did you get?" I asked.

"Well," began Neji, "both Lee and I couldn't find any teams for about a mile. What about you?"

I pulled the earth scroll out of my shirt and presented it like a show and tell prize. "Cleaned it off some Waterfall team. Let's head out for the tower now and polish off more scrolls in the morning."

We set off, Neji still carrying the heaven scroll and I had the earth scroll down my shirt. More and more teams must have been rising, because we saw nobody resting and had to hide from Sakura and Ino's group as they went past, looking for a heaven scroll. Neji estimated the distance to the tower was only a mile and a half, but we had to be careful of teams that would be hanging around the entrance to get scrolls off teams that came to the tower. Luckily, it was only the second day so there hardly any to watch out for.

We got to the tower in the morning, and we opened the scrolls together. Gai-sensei appeared and he and Lee had an embarrassing hug moment while Neji and I ignored them. Gai-sensei finally addressed the rest of us that weren't wearing green spandex jumpsuits.

"My youthful students! You made it back soon! I am so proud-" At this point he began to cry shamelessly, and I whacked him upside the head for it.

"Thank you Tenten! Anyway, you have all done this before, so you know what to do. You get to rest for three days to possibly face the preliminaries. But do not worry! I have confidence in your youthful abilities!" With that, Gai-sensei gave his "nice guy" pose, blinded us half to death, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The people running the exams had set up sparsely furnished rooms for early finishing teams like us. We claimed ours, and I decided to explore. After what seemed like ages and many maze-like hallways, I found the break room for the exam proctors. There was only one person in there and they were asleep, so I pulled out a kunai that had string tied to the loop, and I decided to get the whole team some food. After spearing three apples, I hid them in my kimono sleeves and sneaked off toward our rooms, only to run into the sand siblings.

I just about dropped the apples in surprise. The three of them stopped too and we just looked at each other for a while. The three of them had new outfits, Gaara was scary as ever, Temari's sash around her waist was trailing on the floor, and that other one whose name I can never remember has a different face paint design. Temari spoke first.

"When did you guys arrive?"

"A few hours ago," I replied automatically. She looked me up and down while Gaara spoke in a quiet, gravely voice. "Where is Naruto Uzumaki?"

"He left the village to train with one of the Sanin. We don't know when he's coming back."

Gaara fell into kind of a depressed state, if that was possible. Seriously, the guy was a walking rain cloud of misery. Temari spoke again.

"You know that Shikamaru guy?" I nodded.

"Well, tell him I said 'hi.'" She paused and looked at me again. "Nice outfit."

"Same to you," I said.

"One more thing," she said. "If Pinky and the Blonde from your village make chunin and you don't, I will consider you an insult to kunoichi everywhere." She smirked and I realized that we had a mutual respect for each other, in a weird I–want-to-kick-your-ass kind of way.

"If your brothers make chunin and you don't, you will be an insult to women everywhere," I replied, smiling as well.

Temari waved her hand. "See you around, and kick some ass."

With that, they turned a corner and disappeared down a hallway. After what seemed like an eon, I found our room, which I consider a miraculous feat because the hallways are a series of cream-colored labyrinths. I found Neji meditating and Lee doing pushups. "Hey, guess what I got out of the examiners lounge," I said excitedly.

Neji opened his eyes and Lee stopped doing pushups as I shook back my sleeves to reveal the apples. Lee's eyes widened to the size of plates and he made to grab for one but Neji stopped him. "Did you check for poisons?" he asked. I shook my head no and he grabbed all three. Lee gasped in shock. "What are you doing?"

Neji activated his Byakugan and stared at the apples for what seemed like an hour. "They look fine...hold on." He took an apple and threw it against the wall. It made a dent and fell back down to the ground with a large bruise. He pulled out a kunai from his pouch and sliced it open. The apple looked as juicy as ever, partially because I hadn't eaten in two days.

There was a knock on the door. Lee assumed his fighting stance and I unsheathed my needle shooter on my arm. Neji checked the door. "It's Iruka, don't worry." I opened the door and Iruka greeted us warmly with three trays of food. "Because you guys came early, we're serving you food. Only two other teams besides yours have arrived, so rest up." He walked away and we dug into our food as if we hadn't seen it in weeks.

* * *

For three days, Neji meditated and tried to extend his field of vision. For three days, Lee did two thousand pushups, sit-ups, leg lifts, and squats each all on a rotating basis. Five times. For three days, I did eight different types of yoga that Anko-sensei taught me, cleaned all my weapons (including the ones in the scrolls), and bench-pressed my bed ten times each day. Needless to say, we were all relived when we were told to head to the arena, because the exam deadline was in an hour. Even the thought of standing around for one hour was better than being cooped up in our room for seventy-two. I also found out that the other team that had arrived on the second day was Hinata's. The Sand Siblings, our team, Sakura's, and Hinata's were the only ones that made it to the finals.

All the exam proctors and sensei's were there as well as Lady Tsunade who stood up to speak. "Welcome to this year's chunin exams. I see we have a strong presence of teams from the Leaf here. Out of the four teams that made it, all twelve contestants will be moving on to the third stage of the exams, which take place in exactly one month from today. You will have one month to prepare to fight your predetermined opponent. We will randomly select opponents." With that, she turned to face the screen that began randomizing names. Our gazes followed hers and the first pair was Kankuro vs. Kiba. I smacked my forehead. That was the third brother's name! This would be an interesting battle. I didn't have time to dwell on that for long because the next pair to be called was Temari vs. Ino. The two girls shot each other glares. The next pair was Lee vs. Shino (that would be interesting), next was Hinata vs. Chouji. Then, in some kind of twist of fate, the next names that came up were Sakura's and mine.

Shit. I guess everything comes back to you, doesn't it? Sakura turned and gave me a small smile that I returned half-heartedly. She is so going down.

I was so focused on my thoughts of beating her up, I barely registered that Neji was supposed to fight Gaara. Neji visibly tightened up in front of me and I felt for the guy. We were in the shit together now. Tsunade dismissed us and all the teams had mini team meetings. Neji had gone white and Lee was anxious to go run laps. "Guys," I began, "this is going to be one of the few times that we are together before the exam. Lee, good luck and root for me in the finals," I said, pointing my finger at him sternly. With genuine concern, I turned to Neji. "I know this sucks for you, but I know you can do it." I hugged them both (Neji got an awkward pat on the back) and headed out to look for Anko, more resolute than ever in my belief that I could beat Sakura.

* * *

I think that's a good stopping point in our adventure. Thanks for all the support for this story and my other one, The Ex-Girlfriends. It's very encouraging and it's really fun to see my e-mail filled with notices that more and more of you have added my stories to your favorites or alert sections. Keep up the good reviewing!

Next time: Tenten goes through more training and makes a new friend. Sounds boring, but worth your while!


	5. The Real Training Begins

Thanks again for the response for the last chapter. This isn't the actual third stage chapter, this is the lead up. Don't fret, this is just as important.

Disclaimer: I'm posting this on FF. It's quite obvious nothing in the Naruto universe belongs to me, only this oddly contrived plot.

* * *

"It's really not that hard, just focus. Watch my whole body while maintaining a sense of your surroundings."

I have heard this from Anko-sensei for the past two weeks. The second stage of the Chunin exams ended and we are concentrating on making sure that Sakura can't read me like a book. I still have to figure out an uber-attack and learn not to favor my right hand in battle. Anko-sensei was throwing shuriken combined with attacks at me in an attempt for me to begin to read her movements. It wasn't going well.

"Come on! Tsunade and I have a bet going and I really do not want to buy that woman a years worth of alcohol!"

I stopped dodging and looked at her. I had ditched the clothes I had worn for the chunin exams in favor of more replaceable ones for training. Wearing a t-shirt that I had cut the sleeves off of had just cost me. She threw a shuriken that cut my bulging bicep, but I barely felt it. "What happens if you win?"

"Oh, I get promoted to Jonin, no strings attached," shrugged Anko. "So, if you take no prisoners, I don't have to take the Jonin test!"

"Alright, alright, let's do it again."

She stood ready to fire. I tried my hardest not to concentrate on her hands and saw her whole body instead. She was leaning slightly to her left, getting ready to push off the ground with her left foot. I quickly whipped out one of my scrolls and summoned a long chain with a spike on the end. Whipping it around, I faked her right and caught her left foot mid step. She fell over and smiled goofily at me. "Alright! That's more like it! Let's do it a few more times and then we'll take a break."

I repeated the action, getting different parts of her body every time. On the last time, I got her waist and knocked the breath out of her. "That was good," she said hoarsely, holding her arms above her head. "But Sakura won't go easy on you like I am now. Now, she most likely won't have any big attacks of her own. The medic's main strategy is to find weaknesses in the opponent's attacks and defenses. She might throw a couple of kunai your way to provoke you into an attack, but you are your own undoing when fighting a medic. One wrong move and a good one will finish you.

"But that's why I've got a new strategy idea for you. A combo attack, if you will. Using your strength and chakra, you're going to smash the ground. I don't mean pound your fists in anger, I mean one smash and it looks like the worst earthquake in history tore up the stadium ground. When you do that, immobilize her with that Rising Twin Dragons move of yours. I know that Sand bitch was impervious to it and it doesn't work on Neji, but Sakura is a short distance close-contact fighter. What do you think?"

Before I could express my love of the new plan of attack, Kakashi popped out of thin air. He's been doing that a lot lately.

"Anko, can I stop being your messenger to Ts-"

"Hell no. What did she say?"

Kakashi sighed. "Tsunade says Sakura is the best kunoichi this year and there is no way Tenten can beat her."

Anko glared right through him. "Tell Tsunade she can kiss my ass, because Tenten is going to make genin meat out of Sakura."

Kakashi muttered darkly to himself. "Do you want me to repeat what happened last spring?" Anko threatened dangerously. Kakashi vigorously shook his head. Anko mockingly blew a kiss and said, "You know you love me," before Kakashi poofed away.

This had been going on for more than three hours. Both Tsunade and Anko-sensei were trash talking each other and threatening to beat Kakashi senseless if he didn't deliver the messages. Anko had refrained from using my strength to threaten him further, in case he said something to Tsunade. Kakashi only knows that I have been strength training; just not how far I've come.

"Anyway," continued Anko casually, "if you can time it just right, it could totally work." Her face lit up into an expression I knew all too well. She gets the look when she has a new idea in her head. "Hey, go that way-" she pointed north, "for about one hundred yards. I want you to smash your fists into the ground without using your chakra. Then, go one hundred yards to your right and smash the ground using chakra. Go!"

Sighing, I ran north for almost exactly a hundred yards and stopped. I've smashed walls to rubble before, but never the solid earth beneath my feet. So, inhaling a deep breath, I let out my strength. The area in a twenty-yard radius of me was torn up. Destroyed. The arena was much bigger than twenty yards from the center, but it was still encouraging to see the results of my labor laid out in front of me so plainly.

Running another hundred yards to my right, I inhaled and built up the chakra in my body. Sending it to my fists in an almost effortless manner now, I let it run free.

The whole area looked like Shinobi War IV had taken place in our training ground. Somehow, I was able to hear Anko whooping with glee over the roar of destruction that had long passed but was still ringing in my ears. Dust and dirt rose from the cracks in the earth to block out the sun. Once the dust cleared, I saw that a few trees had become uprooted and birds were flying away in fear of what they were imagining had just torn up the tree they were sleeping in.

I jogged back over to Anko who was applauding me and had a smile plastered on her face. "Well done, kid! That was great! Let's call it a day and I'll treat you to some dango..."

She put her arm around me and lauded my strength and my change over the last half-year. We ate dango that evening, and she had to report to Tsunade (I think she wanted to trash talk a little more), so that left me to wander the streets of Konoha alone. I was fine with it. I've been wandering these streets since before I could talk, and I am probably one of the most streetwise people you will ever meet.

I wandered into the market district and found myself enchanted with the goods that were there. This was unusual because: 1) I am fifteen. Fifteen year-olds are not easily taken with street markets and 2) I had roamed these places for almost all fifteen of these years that I have been alive, so it is kind-of odd that everything seems so new and wondrous to me.

Meandering through the market, I catch a glimpse of four blonde, gravity-defying pigtails over by a jewelry display. I walk over to have my suspicions confirmed.

"Hey," I say as I walked up next to Temari.

"Hey!" she says enthusiastically, handing the vendor money for a beaded choker. "I thought this was the tourist part of town. Why are you here?"

"Wandering. My sensei had to go do something and I don't feel like turning in right away."

Temari nodded. She put the necklace on and motioned me to walk with her. "I know what you mean. Kankuro is sleeping and Gaara is an insomniac, so he is trying to sleep. I couldn't stand being cooped up any longer, so I decided to get out for a bit."

We walked the around the market, chatting amicably the whole way. It was funny how we could be so friendly towards each other, and one of us could end up killing each other in the chunin exams. I guess it's the way of the shinobi.

"So, wait," she began, "are you still training under that guy who always wears green spandex?"

"Master Gai? Sort-of. He's our team leader. Lee still trains under him, but Neji and I have kind of done our own thing. Neji has bloodline stuff to work out and I'm training with Anko Mitarashi."

Temari's mouth opened. "That drill sergeant from the second stage? What has she made you do?"

I thought carefully, not wanting to give too much away. "We've focused on endurance and different kinds of attacks to make sure what happened in the prelims last year doesn't happen in the finals this year."

Temari smiled. "Doesn't sound too bad. What do you know about that Ino girl?"

"Tactically? She uses mind jutsu and she's been training to be a medic under Tsunade."

"No," she said. "I mean, what do you know about her relationship with Shikamaru?"

I was silent for a while. I was stunned – no, correction; I was floored. I know that Shikamaru and Temari fought each other last year, but I didn't know that they kept in touch or at least formed a relationship higher than sparring partners and allies.

"Well," I began carefully, "they're really good friends. The reason she's on the team with him is because their parents and Chouji's parents were on a team together. They're friends, but I don't know how Ino feels about Shikamaru. All I know is he calls her 'troublesome' a lot."

Temari nodded and was silent for a while. I hadn't noticed, but we had wandered out of the market and into a temporary housing area of town. This must be where Tsunade set up the Sand siblings for the month prior to the third stage. We walked in silence for a moment, neither of us daring to speak or disturb the warm summer night. Temari came to a halt outside one of the buildings. "Thanks for walking with me."

I waved it off. "Any time. Take care," I waved. I turned to go but her voice stopped me.

"You want to spar tomorrow?" she called out.

I whipped around. "You sure? Don't you want to wait for the third stage to beat the crap out of each other?

"We're in completely different brackets. If I beat Ino, I fight either my brother or Kiba. If you win, you fight my other brother or your teammate. Only after that is the remote possibility that we fight each other. So, what do you say?"

There was only one thing I could say. "What time?"

* * *

We met at seven the next morning. I waited outside her building with my full arsenal, gear, and clothes with me and she had her massive fan with her. We walked in the deserted streets, trading jabs, her red sash trailing behind us. Settling on one of the newbie grounds, we set up some ground rules.

"Alright," Temari began, "rule number one: Nothing meant to kill. This is just going to be a spar."

"Then rule number two," I replied, "nothing that will put you in the hospital or seriously debilitate you." We shook hands and ran to opposite ends of the training grounds. I threw three shuriken and she whipped out her fan and sent them right back. I caught them and threw them so I purposely missed. Temari laughed. "Your aim has gotten worse."

"Au contraire," I quipped, building strength and chakra in my leg. "My aim has improved."

I jammed my foot into the ground and concentrated on sending my chakra in her direction. A fault line moved her way at a very rapid pace and a hole that opened threatened to swallow her into the center of the earth. She stumbled and flew back, but I was ready. I quickly preformed my Rising Twin Dragons hand seals and shot into the air. I knew she was going to deflect every one of my weapons, but landing one on her wasn't the point of the move.

I flew out of the twin dragons spiral and came straight down with all my strength, aiming for her stomach, but she ducked and I got her nose instead.

The bleeding was instantaneous and the spar ended right then and there. Her nose was dreadfully off center, but to Temari's credit, she made no sound of anguish or a cry of pain. Only an, "uh," as my fist connected with her nose. She pulled out a kunai and motioned for me to hold it in front of her face. Using its reflection, she popped her nose back into place with a sickening crunch. She used her sash to wipe the blood from her nose, but it didn't stop the bleeding. Without protest, I walked her in the direction of the hospital saying, "Sorry," the whole way there. Thank goodness, we ran into Shizune who was making her way to the guard tower to deliver some messages. She fixed Temari's nose in a second, and Temari could talk without sounding like a drunk.

"Don't apologize for doing that," she reprimanded me after I muttered "sorry" for the millionth time that hour. "It was actually a great demonstration of your power. Where did you learn to hit like that anyway? I have two brothers and I can't even get to that level."

I muttered some crap about training exercises, but Temari continued. "What else can you do?"

"Um..." I looked around. "If there's a useless wall around I can show you."

We scoured Konoha for almost an hour looking for something for me to decimate. We settled on a boulder on the outskirts of the city. It was as big as a small house, and it was perfect. "Alright," I said, turning to Temari. "This is what I can do." I faced the boulder, built up chakra, and fired.

There was a massive rumble echoing around the city, but Temari's mouth was hanging open. The boulder was now a pile of pebbles. I grinned sheepishly and all she could say was, "wow," repeatedly as we circled back into the heart of the city. I saw a clock hanging outside a shop and realized that Anko was going to pick me up at my apartment in five minutes.

"Hey Temari, I've got to go. My sensei is supposed to meet me in five, so see you around!"

She waved as I flew on rooftops to get to my building. Anko never liked when I was late and she certainly wouldn't appreciate it if she found out I had been demonstrating my new techniques to someone from the sand village; people she was not on good terms with since last years exams.

I managed to sneak in to my apartment through my window just as I heard a knock on my door. I checked to make sure none of Temari's blood was on me before I opened the door. Anko stood there with a dangerous looking crossbow strapped to her back and she was tapping her foot in a mock-impatient manner. "Took you long enough. Good thing you're dressed for action too, because we're going to test your newfound affinity for creating havoc."

She gave me no hints beyond that as to where we were going. We stepped outside of the boundaries of Konoha and I remembered I had left my scrolls and weapons in the newbie training ground. I really hope that whatever team has those grounds has a mission today and this training exercise lasts for less than four hours. Anko suggested we fly from tree to tree and I obliged. We sped through the thick forest surrounding Konoha in silence; Anko waiting for our apparent destination and me waiting for her to give some hint as to where we were going. From the position of the sun, we are heading east towards the sea. I still have no idea what we are doing or where we are going.

I smelt salty air and sure enough, we are right next to the beach, but still hiding in the woods. There are a few shipping boats just a bit off the coast, which is odd, because there isn't a harbor for another fifteen miles north. Anko kneels down and so do I. "Alright kid," she says, "this is it. These guys are trying to smuggle illegal goods into the Fire Country, and my mission is to take them out. I brought you along to make it look like an accident. See that cliff over there?" She pointed to an ominous looking piece of rock jutting out of the land. I nodded. "I want you to climb to the top and break off a good sized chunk. It's going to plummet to the sea where it will make a giant wave and sink the boats. Before you do that, I'm going to start burning one of them to create a distraction," she said, patting the crossbow on her back.

"Now, Tsunade doesn't know you're here right now. If I said you were coming, something would be suspicious. After the third stage, I'll tell her that you went on this mission with me and it will go down in your records as a B- rank mission and you will get paid accordingly. For now though, we need to drown the boats. Can you make one solid crack across the rock, because otherwise we only get one shot at this."

I thought about it and replied, "I can do it. How soon do we begin?"

Anko brought the crossbow to her front and pulled out an arrow. Well, it was kind of an arrow. It had the fletch on the end, but there was no arrowhead. There was only a ball of cloth on the tip. "Well, you should work your way around to climb up to the cliff, and I'll get this ready. Give me a signal when you want to begin, now go!" With that, she gave me a little shove in the general direction of the cliff. I stalked around it, careful not to draw any possible attention from the sailors on the boats. Once I was halfway up the cliff, I turned to Anko and gave a hand sign. Almost instantly, a flaming arrow flew out of the woods and hit one of the boats. There was lots of shouting from all crewmembers on the boats. That was my cue.

I built up chakra in my arms and hands and preyed to Kami that I didn't screw this up. Concentrating on making a sharp, vertical cut in the rock, I brought my fists down.

Luck was with me, because the cut was clean, and a giant half of the cliff plummeted into the sea to create one of the largest waves that I had ever seen. It snuck up behind the distracted sailors and before their cries of help could reach land, they were sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

I ran down to see Anko and she high-fived me, the crossbow resting on her back again. We flew back to Konoha and she declared my training over for the day. I ran back to the newbie grounds, picked up my weapons and scrolls, and headed back to town. I probably should have been a good teammate and caught up with Lee and Neji. I probably should have been a good friend and hung out with Temari some more. I probably should have been a good shinobi and go to the hospital to make sure I was in tip-top shape for the third stage of the exams in two weeks, or I should have ignored Anko and trained more. I decided to order sushi.

* * *

The end! No worries – I'm cranking these out fast now, so they're going to keep coming.

Next time: Catfights with Dogs


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